Immortals and Avians
by Griffinfeather
Summary: Alanna the Lioness and Numair Salmalin are unprepared when Maximum and Fang Ride enter their world, armed with a strange warning from an old friend and possibly the ability to save Tortall from certain destruction. Tortall/Maximum Ride crossover.
1. Meeting of the Minds

Numair Salmalín gazed up into the part of the sky unobstructed by the trees in the Royal Forest, and saw two shapes in the sky. "Alanna, don't those look a bit big to be normal birds to you?" He asked his companion with a frown.

Alanna looked up from watering her horse. "It's hard to tell, really, from this distance, but definitely too big for birds. Maybe another species of immortal, goddess bless." She cursed.

The mage and the lady knight watched the shapes as they grew larger and swooped downward. Numair noticed the shapes' proportions were odd, before they disappeared into the treetops.

Alanna knit her eyebrows, violet fire glowing on her hands as she prepared to use magic. She had nearly lit up the forest with purple light to find the strange threats when two figures walked into the clearing. They were a boy and a girl. Both looked around the age of sixteen, with hard looks in their eyes and the grimy clothes of soldiers on the move.

The girl met Alanna's eyes. "Who are you?" She asked harshly, weariness showing in her face and making her look much older.

Alanna remembered her manners and greeted, "Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau, King's Champion of Tortall, and Numair Salmalín, mage of the realm of Tortall."

Numair studied the two with the curiosity of a scholar. Their clothes were unusual, and they looked like nothing you'd find in Tortall, no matter how many changes King Jonathan and Queen Thayet had brought to the kingdom. "Are you K'miri?" He asked politely.

The dark-haired boy looked slightly taken aback. "No, I'm Italian."

Alanna was nonplussed by his strange answer, and asked, "I assume you have names?"

She didn't realize that this was a wilder assumption than she thought, as these two had never had official names. The girl was known to most as Maximum Ride. However, unlike their younger siblings, she and the boy excelled at making up reasonable fake identities.

"Alex Taylor, and Nick Johnson." Max gave their current identities, which changed approximately every month. For this very reason, they'd probably have to change it again.

Numair bowed as deeply was would be considered proper for the commoners they claimed to be. "What is your business in the Royal Forest?" He asked conversationally.

Max's replied warily, "We've been sent to seek out a King Roger."

Alanna's eyes flashed as she hoped her fear wouldn't reach her countenance. "There has never been a King Roger. Duke Roger tried to overthrow the king over ten years ago, but he was defeated." She decided to leave out _'by me'_.

"Well, take us to the other king, then!" The girl snapped. Max herself was concerned by her outburst. She was sarcastic, snide, and made everyone's life a living nightmare, but not bossy. Maybe she was losing her touch.

The King's Champion, always short-tempered, said irritably, "That will just have to wait, children. We've been sent to handle a dangerous flock of immortals; a mission you have already delayed us from!"

Max almost smiled. 'Flock' was an interesting word choice on the woman's part. Alanna pulled a chain around her neck, grasping a flickering purple stone and holding it up. "I know you two are lying to us and hiding something, and it won't be long until we know what about!" She nearly shouted.

With another long look at her companion, Max said, "Okay, fine. My name is Maximum Ride, and this is my…" Brother? Boyfriend? Co-mutant? "friend Fang."

For some reason, Max felt she could trust the short, irritable woman and the tall, polite man. Trust was not a natural instinct for her, so she was unnerved by being relaxed, but she told her secret anyway. "As to what we're hiding." She stepped away from Fang so as to not hit him, rolled her shoulders, and let her wings fan out in all their brown and white glory.

Numair had seen plenty of pretty of strange things in his life. They happened practically every day at the Carthaki university. He was not prepared for this wonder, however. "Mithros, Minoss, and Shakith." He whispered.

"Immortals?" Alanna asked her friend under her breath.

"Human-avian hybrids is the accepted term." Max shot back.

With a glance at Alanna's flaming red hair and strange violet eyes, Max knew she had found the person she was looking for. "Do you happen to know a person called Thom of Trebond?" She asked casually, letting her wings furl closer to her back, allowing more room to maneuver.

All the color drained from the Lioness' face. "You know of Thom?" She asked in shock.

"Met him, actually." Max said, trying to look bored.

"He is…was… my twin. He died a long time ago, during Duke Roger's attempted overthrow." She said, trying to regain her composure.

"Well, he obviously didn't." Max drawled. "We met him only yesterday."

Shock turned to disbelief. "I believe an explanation is in order." Alanna said darkly.

Fang met Max's eyes for a moment, and said, "Okay. The story might take a while."

Numair took a mirror from one of his saddlebags and said to Alanna, "I'll contact the king, and tell him we'll be delayed." Black fire surrounded the mirror. "I can tell this is important."


	2. Campfire with a Mage

**Author's Note: Thank you to all who sent such kind reviews. I'm sorry I didn't update for so long; I was on a quite long road trip. Also, to correct a mistake from the previous chapter, it turns out there has been a King Roger in Tortall. Max, unknowingly, is referring to Duke Roger of Conte. I do not own anything or anyone in this story.**

**One day earlier:**

Max felt the shadow of the angel of death behind her. She turned, smiled, and said, "Hey, Fang."

Fang, who had more than once posed as the angel of death, asked, "Mind if I join you?"

As it's exceptionally hard to _make_ someone go away at five thousand feet without knocking them out of the sky, Max slowed down so they were flying side by side. Her usual joy at flying for pleasure (as opposed to flying from certain death) swelled to be with Fang. The sunset was staining the clouds wild hues of orange, pink, and purple against the sky.

They landed silently on a sandstone cliff. There were no other humans or even mostly-humans around for miles. Max didn't bother to fold in her wings. A thought struck her, and worry kicked in; it was an emotion that she'd only let two people ever see: Fang and her mother.

"What?" Fang asked, sensing her concern.

Max tried for a grin. "You, me, and deserts don't mix. Every time we're alone in the desert, the flock gets kidnapped, or my mom gets kidnapped…" She let her thought dissipate in the air.

Fang grinned back. When Fang smiled, it really mattered: it wasn't a common expression. "Nothing can happen. The flock is safe with your mother, Ella, and Jeb."

Contradiction was a reflex for Max. "How do you know? Jeb betrayed us once." Actually, approximately twenty times, but in the past year he found where his loyalties lay.

Fang rolled his dark eyes. Immediately, he froze. He said quietly. "Max. Seven o'clock. Hundred feet away."

Max casually turned her head around. Indeed, someone was approaching. It wasn't bulky enough to be an Eraser, it didn't have wings like a Flyboy, and move too fluidly to be an M-geek. That didn't mean it wasn't a threat. "Wait. Be ready for an up and away, but we'll see what it is."

As it turned out, the something was a man, in his early twenties. He wore odd orange robes that even fashion-clueless Max knew clashed horribly with his coppery hair. Fang snapped in his wings, but Max was less cautious. Anyone who wore robes in the Arizona heat and wandered in the desert had to be severely insane, and therefore wings would probably go unnoticed.

"Are you Max and Fang Ride?" The man asked. His accent was vaguely British.

The "_oh crap" _that Max always felt when someone knew their identities was as strong as ever. "We prefer Maximina and Fangmeister, ourselves." She said snidely.

The strange man smiled. "You're definitely the two I'm looking for. Allow me to make a campfire. I need to discuss something with you." Reddish-brown fire shot from his hand onto the ground, becoming a decent-sized normal-colored campfire.

Max was an expert at making total amazement looked like passive boredom. "Um, who are you? Not that we don't usually welcome random strangers to chat and sing a little Kumbaya."

He raised an eyebrow. "My name is Thom of Trebond. I am, if you wondered, a mage. I need your help."

"Aww, Fang, he needs our help." Max said, her voice dripping sarcasm.  
Thom scowled, impatience in his unbelievably purple eyes. "Don't try me." A reddish-brown flame sprungin his outstretched palm.

"You said you needed to talk to us. Talk." Fang offered.

Thom extinguished the flame and said, "The realm where I come from, Tortall, is in grave danger. I've been looking for help for the past year. When I found Jeb Batchelder, he told me about you. He believes you can save my world."

Max felt sympathetic to people trying to save the world. "What's wrong?" She asked, almost kindly.

By the time Thom had finished his explanation of the danger that threatened Tortall, the sky was completely dark, and the fire proved very useful.

"So, how did you get here?" Max asked, slightly taken aback by the information.

Thom sighed. "I won't bore you with mage-talk. I learned in my research that if one has enough magic, it's possible to cross from my world to yours, and vice-versa. It's extremely difficult, though." He said with a wicked grin, "I had to steal King Roger's gift to be able to do it."

"Why can't you go save your own world, then, if you're so powerful?" Fang asked, his expression unreadable as usual.

"That's the problem. My self in Tortall is quite dead at the moment. That Thom died only a few minutes after I attempted the switch. I am trapped here. But I still am capable of sending others in my place."

The last question on Max's mind was posed. "Why do you need _us_?"  
The flames seemed to grow slightly taller. "You are powerful, even more powerful than you realize."

"Gee, where have I heard that before?" Max whispered, sarcasm abandoning her.

"Max, Fang, you don't realize your importance. You're the _only ones_ who can do this." Thom said solemnly. "Are you willing?"

Max and Fang looked at one another for a long time. "Why not?" Max finally asked.

Thom nodded. "This will take a second." Reddish flames streamed out of Thom's hands, quickly engulfing Max and Fang.


	3. Max's Poor DoGooder Heart

**Author's Note: I apologize once again for the enormous delay in uploading another chapter. Thank you to all the reviewers who gave me hearty encouragement and advice, and who gently reminded me to update.**

"Well, that's the story. I hope you took notes. This will be on the test." Max said with a smirk. She was pleased with the two strangers' reactions. She usually only got such impressive shocked looks when she snapped open her wings.

The man named Numair's eyes seemed to light with excitement. "So it is possible to change worlds? I've read of only one example in history, and that was even before the Human Era, I wondered if it was even possible anymore. It makes sense, having to combine Gifts, even if they were such powerful Gifts like Roger's and Thom's… we heard about them even in the Carthaki University. Could one willingly join Gifts, or does one have to 'steal' it from someone else? How does the Gift work in other worlds? If you run out of Gift, will it come back in that other world?"

Max cried, "Shut up! You talk more than Nudge!" which of course made her feel homesick for her flock and the verbose twelve year-old.

"Oh, sorry." Numair said with a sheepish grin.

"You can worry about your scholar question later. Did you forget that there's a war going on?" Alanna snapped.

Fang whistled. "So your Thom wasn't kidding."

Max stood abruptly. "That's it. We don't do war. We can do fights. We can do battles. Heck, we can even do duels to the death. But not wars."

Numair stood up. Max realized he was even taller than her brother Iggy back home, which made her feel another pang of homesickness. "Please." He pleaded. "We need you."

"Well, get in line and take a number!" Max shouted. "Lots of other people need me, too! I'm already supposed to save _my_ world! And my flock needs me, and Ella, and my mom…" She could feel her eyes sting. She thought, _Jeezum,_ _if I start crying in front of strangers, I will fly to 35,000 feet and fold my wings in._

Alanna's voice softened. "Max." She said quietly, completely uncharacteristically calm. "At home, I have three children. Thom is nine, and little Alan and Alianne are seven years old. We live on a coastal fief, one that has already been attacked by the Carthakis. My husband, as a royal spymaster, could be a hearty prize for pirates. Two of my greatest friends, King Jonathan and Queen Thayet, have five children. There have already been attempts on their lives. If they die, the children will be orphaned."

"Like we used to be." Fang said softly.

Max glared at him. Whose side was he on, anyway? She felt a new emotion, one rarely if never felt in Max's heart: sympathy.

"Sure, cater to my poor do-gooder heart!" Max said angrily. "Where do we go?"

Fang, Alanna, and Numair both looked at Max in awe. None of them had expected her to actually agree to this. Fang in particular knew her long and impressive record of lack of cooperation.

"Well, we were going to meet up at Port Legann after we'd dealt with the hurroks." Numair suggested. "My student, Daine, is there."

Was it just Max's imagination, or did the tall man say "My student Daine" the same way that she herself said "My friend Fang"? An evil grin flickered on her lips.

"Where?" Fang asked.

"It's about five hours journey west by southwest." Alanna explained.

Max snorted. "Which means about half an hour. Have fun on your dangerous mission. We'll meet you there."

At the same time, light brown and black wings unfurled. Fang and Max ran a few feet before leaping into the sky in perfect synchronization. Their wings beat and carried them upward.

"Mithros, that was a sight." Numair said with feeling.

Alanna looked at her fellow mage and friend. "Numair, you forgot to tell them something."

Numair swung a long leg over his horse and asked playfully, "What might that be, Baroness?"

The Lioness scowled, hating to be identified as nobility. "You forgot to mention we don't know how to get them back to their own world."

The mage smiled, a glint in his brown eyes, and silently put a long, bony finger to his lips.


End file.
